At the risk of riling up the animal lovers again, I’ve got to say that I don’t get all that warm and fuzzy about protecting polar bears from extinction. At least, not as much as, say, the Bald Eagle. Or the koala, in case anybody asked me to protect them. Or the snail darter.
Oh, it might be necessary for the planet and all. But I don’t get emotionally involved. If we gotta protect ’em, let’s do it. But I just don’t feel about them the way I did back when, say, those cute Coca-Cola commercials came out.
The problem is, a couple of years back I was reading about bears, and the article reviewed the varying degrees to which each variety of bear might be dangerous, under certain circumstance.
But as near as I can recall, as fierce as the grizzly’s rep may be, it was nothing compared to the polar bear, which, I was told, hunts humans for food.
Has anyone heard otherwise? Until I get that confirmed, I’m going to prefer to continue protecting the polar bear from a great distance.
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Polar bears pretty much rule the ice.
There aren’t many people around them, and bears in isolated regions are not usually afraid of man. They get large, too, up to 1,600 lbs. Hunting them in a sporting manner is not going to be attempted by many people, due to the environment, time, and expense. A few have done it with bow and arrow, before the ban on hunting.
“Animal lovers”, come on Brad. There were plenty of posts about Eight Belles from people who were not members of PETA.
Because we don’t share your stoicism doesn’t mean we are warm and fuzzy. Maintaining an ecological balance is common sense. If we allowed all man eaters to demise, what would happen?
Brad’s position on animals amounts to “they’re with us or against us”.
Polar bears are a living eating machine that do any and everything to protect their own survival. They do a very good job of protecting their species.
If this country is going to survive and be independent of the oil cartel to supply our oil at their prices, we have to make some hard decisions and forget about all this Al Gore stuff about global warming.
One other thing, Obama’s plan for the country is to basically organize it like a labor union. Take it to the bank.
From what I have heard in the last weeks, the South Pole has a record measured ice pack for the last year. I don’t think polar bears are under threat. At least not the way the alarmists would have us believe. David
David, the polar bear habitat does not include the South Pole. They need the sea ice of the arctic region. It sounds like the “alarmists” who care about these animals understood this.
Mr. Warthen, I think we’re closer kin to the polar bear than we are to the bald eagle, bears and humans both being mammals, after all.
But the horse’s/donkey’s broken legs from the Kentucky/Democrat Derby bother me a lot more than the prospect of polar bears disappearing.
Could be because Eight Belles had a name. Not many polar bears do. I think that makes a difference.
Might also be because I think global warming is a natural phenomenon that has little to do with human beings’ ecological sins.
In the wild, species come and go
Oblivious to Michelangelo
They should have been pairs of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas
Settling in their armchairs,
Feeling our disease
Until one, viewing the Democrat Derby through a hole in the wall
Should say: “That is not it at all.
No, that casts a pall on us all.”
Nothing more to be said than, Brad… you’re an idiot.”
People hunt people too… are you going to be afraid the next time you go to the mall or grocery store?
I see you put your “I just sat on my stapler” picture up again.
It is interesting that people who bow to Darwin will go against their god and stop his natural selection in the evolving survival of the fittest.
David,
The South Pole is increasing its ice, while some small areas around the North Pole have lost some ice.
Greenland, which has kept records of its ice and weather in detail for over 100 years, reports no signs of warming during that time.
In other words, there is no “global warming”, and isolated areas of warming, especially unpopulated ones, are not the fault of man burning fuels.
Come on Lee, you’ll have to do better than that.
Glacial Earthquakes Point to Rising Temperatures in Greenland
Greenland Ice Loss Doubles in Past Decade, Raising Sea Level Faster
Wally,
You need to stop dieting on edited tidbits of junk science, fed to you you by propagandists.
Yes, there have been warming trends in Greenland, but only for a short time. All of the northern hemisphere has warmed due to events in our solar system, while the southern hemisphere has cooled.
Greenland had greater warming during the 1920s than this latest trend.
http://meteo.lcd.lu/globalwarming/Chylek/greenland_warming.html
The official position of the American Geophysical Union, source of that abstract you’ve posted, is that global warming is real, and caused by human activity.
AGU Revises Position on Climate Change
Warming is happening in the Southern Hemisphere as well.
National Snow and Ice Data Center
British Antarctic Survey
Over 98% of meterologists, climatogists, and physical oceanographers, who actually study global weather and climate for a living, think there is no long-term trend of global warming, and the short trends are not due to man.
The opinions of random scientists and non-technical pundits outside the field is worthless.
The latest 10 year studies by NASA, NOAA, and several international groups show a GLOBAL COOLING trend which began in 1998.
The above post by Rack Jack is the most awful, offensive thing I have ever read and I have read a lot.
NASA, you say?
Solar Variability: Striking a Balance with Climate Change
One year of cooler temperatures due to a temporary solar minimum doesn’t mean that there isn’t a larger warming trend. And it is just one year so far, not ten: 2007 was tied for the second-hottest year on record, and 2006 was nearly as hot.
Not “one year of cooler temperatures”, wally – TEN YEARS.
R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada’s Carleton University, says that ‘CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet’s climate on long, medium and even short time scales.’
Rather, he says, ‘I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet.’
Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, describes “weather and climate science” as being in a “primitive state.” Thus, are we to believe predictions about the temperature 50 years hence? Science can’t even tell us definitively what the weather will be like on Thursday. The only thing we can know for sure is that it will be different.
1. The global temperature this January, measured by both satellite- and land-and-ocean-based instruments, was significantly colder than last January’s, which had been significantly warmer than any January in at least a century. From one January to the next we have experienced a fairly dramatic cooling, on the order of 0.7 degrees C or 1.2 deg. F. Statistically, that’s almost enough to wipe out the last century’s worth of warming.
2. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history in 2007.
3. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began.
4. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice,
5. record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile…
6. South America just had its coldest winter in 90 years.
7. Afghanistan is being visited with the coldest weather since it started keeping records; low temperatures have thus far claimed more than 650 lives.
8. Tajikistan is “facing an energy crisis in the midst of the coldest winter in more than 25 years.”
9. Mumbai, India is experiencing its coldest weather in 40 years.
Overall, the planet just experienced its second-coldest January in 15 years.
I didn’t see anything about “ten years” there; you just listed nine items which referred to this year only, or compared it to last year. Your first point even notes that January 2007 was the warmest in a century – how can you possibly reconcile that with your claims?
I’m done with this. You accuse me of subscribing to “junk science” when I’ve cited your own sources to refute your points. There’s simply no way to have a meaningful discussion with you on this topic.
I didn’t see anything about “ten years” there; you just listed nine items which referred to this year only, or compared it to last year. Your first point even notes that January 2007 was the warmest in a century – how can you possibly reconcile that with your claims?
I’m done with this. You accuse me of subscribing to “junk science” when I’ve cited your own sources to refute your points. There’s simply no way to have a meaningful discussion with you on this topic.
Sorry about that, slugger. It’s gone now.
At least polar bears don’t post stuff like that on blogs, huh?
At least he didn’t try to eat Brad.
Someone has been watching too much LOST.
wally,
If you were at all familiar with the phony issue of “global warming”, you would know what I was talking about when I refer to the NASA, NOAA and European studies which find the last 10 years having a cooling trend.
I posted some recent hard evidence with which you might be familiar from watching the Weather Channel, or going outside once in a while.
Good eye, Slugger. I was wondering who would do profanity patrol besides me. Poor Jack.
Speaking of Lost — my daughter watches that, and I’ve seen enough of it (about five minutes) to know I don’t want to. But this morning I made a reference to "jumping the shark," and she asked me to define that, and I did, and she asked in "Lost" had jumped the shark.
But then she reflected that Lost probably jumped the shark the day in the first episode, which sounds right to me. Actually, I think the term for a show like that, which starts out in a weird place, is "high concept."
But I’m not sure. What am I, Marshall McLuhan?
Polar bears are my favourite animal and I agree that they don’t eat people.
DOES POLAR BEARS EAT PEOPLE?